Charity’s work comes to natural conclusion

A charity set up by a former teacher 20 years ago to help Brazilian street orphans will be deregistered in April.

The Mirassol Trust was established by Mr Tim Phillips in 1988.

Mr Phillips (50) lived at Nursery End, Southwell, and taught at King Edwin Primary School, Edwinstowe, before moving to Brazil.

His step-father and mother, Mr and Mrs Alan Ayres of Spring Lane, Farnsfield, led the fund-raising for the charity in England.

Mr Phillips set up the charity after seeing the plight of street children in Brazil.

Mr Ayres said: “Tim got a job as a teacher at the British Consulate in Sao Paulo where he worked with children.

“He joined the Round Table who did visits to orphanages.

“He wasn’t happy with what he saw and knew he wanted to help.”

The charity originally fostered 22 abandoned children and Mr Phillips and his Brazilian wife, Mrs Fatima Phillips, eventually adopted 11 of them.

In 1995 the charity stopped adopting children and focused on providing care for disabled children.

Mr Ayres said: “The charity set up a school for very disabled children.

“The local school for disabled children didn’t cater for the very physically disabled — the children who went there had to be able to go to the toilet themselves, feed themselves and walk through the door.

“The school Tim set up became known as the Robin Hood Centre. Eventually the locals took it over so that it became less of a drain on our resources.”

Responsibility for running the centre passed to the town council in Mirrasol in 2006.

Mr Ayres said the charity’s work had come to a natural end because the Robin Hood Centre was no longer their responsibility and the youngest of the children adopted by Mr and Mrs Phillips, Raquel, would be 18 in November 2009 and would no longer need financial assistance.

“If it hadn’t been for the people who supported us for the last 20 years none of it would have been possible,” said Mr Ayres.

“We have achieved a tremendous amount.

“If it wasn’t for the charity the children would have been left in foster homes or adoption agencies because things weren’t good for children in Brazil 20 years ago.

“What we have achieved is down to people sticking their hands in their pockets and running fund-raising events.”

Mr Ayres said he thought that the charity’s most valuable work was with the children they fostered and adopted.

“They adopted one girl and her two brothers,” he said. “All three children had the same mother, who was a prostitute, and they all had different fathers.

“We kept all three children together when they could have been separated and they were provided with a stable home environment and are all doing really well.”

After the charity is deregistered Mr Phillips, Mrs Phillips and their son, Oliver (15) will remain in Brazil where Mr Phillips will teach English as a foreign language.

Any money left in the charity’s account will be put into a fund for one of Mr and Mrs Phillips’ adopted daughters, Luana, who has learning difficulties and will continue to need financial support.